Janice Tripepi

A simple bowl of hot and spicy chilli heaven!

Thank heavens for Pasta aglio, olio e peperoncino!  This has to be one of the easiest plates of pasta to knock together, second only to Pasta Bianca Neve (Snow Whites Pasta) which is made with a little cream cheese.  Sometimes the pace of life in la casa Tripepi goes into overdrive.  Of late we have been entertaining, working exceptionally long hours and life is beginning to resemble a blur.  Having said this, I couldn’t be more excited by it all.  I am of those, I’ll sleep when I’m dead ilk, and I firmly believe that it’s not the things that we do in life that we regret, it’s the things that we don’t do.

Meal planning has been on the fly and thank goodness TrickyRicky is more than happy to get into the kitchen to ‘rattle them pots and pans’.   My work day only finished very late yesterday and I still had to get to the shops for such basics as bread and milk.The chopping for this spicy hot plate of pasta takes all of five minutes.  So, put on a large pot of water to boil,  get chopping and by the time that your spaghetti has cooked (around 9 minutes) your sauce will be ready and the family can be fed.

Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino

(Garlic, Oil and Chilli Pasta Sauce)

Feeds 4

 Ingredients

 ½ cup of olive oil

5 cloves of garlic finely chopped

4 red chillies chopped finely – you can use either more or less chillies

1 bunch of spring onions finely chopped

1 handful of chopped fresh parsley

1 x 500g packet of spaghetti

Grated parmesan cheese for serving

Salt & pepper

Method

Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil and put in the spaghetti.  Don’t forget to stir frequently to prevent
the pasta from sticking together.

In a large frying pan heat your olive oil and add the garlic, chilli, spring onions and over a medium
heat brown all the above.  The idea is to flavour the oil well with the chilli and garlic.

Add 1tsp of salt and 1tsp of freshly ground pepper.

As soon as the pasta is tender, use your pasta spoon to lift it out of the water and put it straight
into the frying pan with the sauce.  You don’t need to drain the water off in a colander.

Add 1/3 of a cup of the pasta water to the frying pan too to moisten the sauce.

Stir in the freshly chopped parsley and serve with a good sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.

Serve with some crusty bread.

The chilli will work its’ magic in a flash and warm you up from the inside.

Here is the Pasta Bianca Neve that I mentioned above – cooked in a flash and yummy!

Click on the picture to be taken to the recipe for this bowl of creamy, cheesy heaven!

 Perhaps a little curry to warm those tummies?

Butter chicken is one of my favourites!

Click on the picture to be taken to the recipe.

As always

Buon Appetito

and spare a thought for those less fortunate than ourselves in this cold and bitter weather.

Stay warm and safe.

Xxx

Jan